News & Reviews News Wire Railroads hunker down ahead of Hurricane Dorian’s advance NEWSWIRE

Railroads hunker down ahead of Hurricane Dorian’s advance NEWSWIRE

By Mike Landry | September 3, 2019

| Last updated on November 3, 2020

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Railroads and others made preparations last week in the event of a Hurricane Dorian landfall in the southeastern U.S.

Suspending service at 11:59 p.m. Friday, Florida East Coast Railway officials report they are continuing to monitor the hurricane’s path and are “taking necessary precautions to protect employees, rail traffic, and infrastructure.”

As a result of the FEC shutdown, Kansas City Southern embargoes shipments at its Wylie, Texas, intermodal facility to FEC destinations of Titusville and Miami, Fla.

CSX Transportation officials have made a statement similar to FEC’s about monitoring the situation and anticipate possible service disruptions in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Norfolk Southern reports post-storm planning was underway and it “will begin recovery using staged equipment and materials as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Shippers were moving goods out of state or attempting to get them in place before possible Dorian landfall; some ports closed, and the U.S. Coast Guard ordered ports to stack containers not more than four high, two for hazardous materials, according to the Journal of Commerce.

As of early Tuesday morning, Hurricane Dorian had sustained winds of more than 120 mph and gusts of nearly 150 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Jacksonville, Fla., home to CSX Transportation’s headquarters and dispatching, is projected to face tropical storm conditions by Wednesday as weather service forecasters predict that Dorian will come close to, but not reach, the mainland U.S.

The major Southeast port of Charleston, S.C., is expected to have tropical storm conditions Wednesday with possible hurricane conditions Wednesday night and Thursday.

3 thoughts on “Railroads hunker down ahead of Hurricane Dorian’s advance NEWSWIRE

  1. John Rice,

    Silicon Valley is not the most seismically active part of the world…that would actually be Japan…and I think there was a hint of sarcasm in Penelope’s post about NS and CSX. NS moved because Atlanta is cheaper, CSX isn’t going to move just because of potential flooding.

  2. Based on your thinking, every one should put their HQ in South Dakota. No earthquakes. No hurricanes. Other than some snow, no or few natural disasters at all.

    In fact I joke with the technology companies on why they put their priceless datacenters in the most seismically active part of the world (Silicon Valley). It is so everyone can see them and they can brag?

    Ultimately isn’t that what an HQ is all about? A logo on a tall building that everyone (like investors) can see?

    If that is the case, an HQ can be anywhere.

  3. As Norfolk Southern is moving its headquarters from Norfolk to Atlanta, perhaps CSX should consider moving its headquarters from flood-prone Jacksonville to Nashville.

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